Snagit 2018 for Mac - How do I prevent the Editor from opening when I start Snagit?

Hi. I just got Snagit 2018 for Mac. I'm a long time Snagit user on Windows and love it. When I open up Snagit on my Mac (I do not want it running in the background all the time), the Editor automatically opens up too. I don't want the editor to automatically open up when I start Snagit. How do I prevent the Editor from opening up when Snagit starts?

I had to walk over and have a lengthy conversation with the Snagit Mac developers about your question. The short answer is you cannot do this.

Here is the reason why, the Snagit Mac editor is the main Snagit application. The first time you launch it, it launches the Capture Helper (the widget or menubar widget depending on your settings). When you check "run in background" macOS is able to remember that first launch across reboots. Otherwise we can not launch the Capture Helper by itself.

This is typical of how macOS applications with helpers work. Like Evernote or 1password on my own Macs. If I do not set them to launch at startup, the first time they launch you get the main app window, then you can close it and the helpers continue running in the background.

Don't get me wrong, I use Snagit the same way you do and want the same thing, but it's just not how apps with helpers work on Mac.

I have a question (challenge) for the developers. :-) Would they be able to allow the Editor to open upon launch of Snagit, but then have the application automatically close the Editor window immediately after that, thus making it appear as though the Editor never opened? Or even if you do catch a glimpse of the Editor being closed automatically, so be it, but it would be nice for it to be closed automatically.

The reason why I'm wondering if this is possible is because you stated that after opening Snagit and after the Editor opens itself as part of that initial Snagit launch, you stated (and I have observed this myself) that the Editor can then be manually closed and the Capture Helper will still run in the background.

I have 2018 installed on my Mac and the only time the editor ever opened when first loaded was first time. Once I closed the editor , then the only thing you see is the S icon in the Main Menu bar. Then the only the editor opens is when you do shift+control+s or other keyboard commands then the editor open. Also as long as the editor is shut down (closed. When you restart on the S in the main menu bar shows.

Ah! You're right! Mine is even less than that! I had closed the Editor window before, but it still left Snagit running in the Dock and it looks like what I saw in the Activity Monitor was still the full Snagit app.

I set up Snagit to run in the background and, you're right, SnagitHelper2018 was left behind and is much smaller than the ~200MB I was looking at.

Thanks. Yeah. After letting Snagit run in the background for a while, it actually ended steadying out at ~75MB like @JMichaelTX showed in his screenshot. Upon initial startup, it was smaller, like what you show here.

We just released a 2018.1.1 update today which has some improvements for the memory issue with the SnagitHelper app. Hopefully this helps all of your workflows run smoother, but please let us know if you still see any issues.